Time resolving characteristics of HPK and FBK silicon photomultipliers for TOF and PET applications

In time-of-flight measurements, or positron emission tomography experiments where two gamma rays are detected in coincidence, the time resolution of the photodetector is of primary importance. SiPMs are very promising devices for these applications, since their intrinsic response time can be less than 1 ns. However the actual timing resolution of SiPM is affected by the area (capacitance) of the device, by the type of used to pre-amplify the signal, by the dark count rate which is revealed as pure noise, and other second order effects like cross-talk and after pulsing. In this work we report the characteristics of different samples of Hamamatsu Photonics (HPK) and Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) SiPM, with pixel size ranging from 40 to 100 μm. In particular, we have investigated their time response when stimulated with O(50) ps pulsed laser at wavelengths in the range 400–800 nm.